One of the biggest issues I deal with, in terms of people asking for help with their dogs, is dog reactivity. These are the dogs that lose their minds when they see another dog by barking, snapping, lunging, or trying to drag their owners toward the dog to start some sort of trouble. I personally feel that reactivity, while not desirable in a dog, is a completely normal dog behavior. Again, this is not desirable, but not necessarily indicative of the dog being a bad dog.
That being said, if you do own a dog that is reactive towards others, you absolutely have a responsibility to train that dog to walk nicely out in public and manage their lives for the safety of not only other dogs but your dog as well. Circling back towards temperament and what makes a dog’s personality, I want to caution everyone who thinks that dog training or behavior modification can change the core of what makes your dog “them.” It can’t! What you can do is train your dogs to offer certain behaviors instead of being reactive. However, I do not feel that dogs that have a prey drive or simply do not like other dogs for whatever reason will ever change their core beliefs on the subject. But you can learn to manage these behaviors.
I will use examples of terrier breeds to show how their temperaments play a significant role in their training. Most of the people I know from dog shows are terrier breeders. From Scottish Terriers to my breed, the Bull Terrier, we all have breeds that were bred to extinguish some sort of vermin independently of their owners and of other dogs. They are not pack animals like hound breeds. Most of these breeds have an innate prey drive. I do not know any Scottie that does not still hunt or who does not openly have a disgust for other dogs getting into their space. Yet all of them are show dogs that go to a dog show and ignore other dogs and behave themselves. That said, not one of their owners would feel comfortable letting their dogs off-lead on dog beach to work it out with other dogs. I know that all of my girls feel that small furry dogs resemble chipmunks, so I am never going to let them play with a toy poodle. So training terriers to modify or manage their reactivity is absolutely possible. However, training them to “like” other dogs is not.
So if you are the owner of a reactive dog, the above should give you a great deal of hope that, yes, you can train your reactive dog to do better out in the world. But I will caution you that it does involve a significant amount of dedication and work. You will have to change how you approach walking these dogs and put a great deal of time into working on your dog’s ability to ignore other dogs. That might mean possibly just standing in a parking lot as your dog learns not to react to other dogs. The biggest factors of this training succeeding are their temperament and the owner’s dedication to making them more model citizens.
I want to ask a favor of the rest of you who do not have a reactive dog: to lose your judgment of those that do. It is perfectly normal in the dog world to sometimes flex, if you will, toward other dogs. Dogs not liking each other is as common as us humans not liking each other. I commend anyone who is trying to put the time and effort into their reactive dogs and help them enjoy more of the outside world. Next time, I will talk about how your dog’s reactivity is a slippery slope towards dog aggression and why I believe you should seek training help if you own a reactive dog.
If you have any questions, please email me at heidi@fouronthefloordogtraining.net.
Heidi Clayton started Four On the Floor Dog Training to provide positive, reward-based dog training in South Jersey. She breeds, trains and shows bull terriers under the SoraBully’s Bull Terriers kennel name. Email questions to heidi@fouronthefloordogtraining.net or learn more at https://fouronthefloordogtraining.net
